But we'll pretend it's not Sunday.
SO. Onto the small towns and cities part. Well, as you've noticed, we've had the running 'setting' theme this week! I've lived in a lot of different places. A small city-island in Michigan, a medium sized charming town in Michigan, a beach house in Connecticut, a medium sized town in Connecticut, aaaand an itty-bitty village quite close to a medium-sized city in Illinois (I've lived many places. Did I say that? I have).
Basically I'm used to small-medium towns and I am quite familiar with the Midwest. For this setting post, I'm going to talk about where I live now, which is the tiny village right by a medium-sized city (Peoria) (which, as Wikipedia says, is the largest city in the Illinois River Valley and the seventh largest in Illinois). We've already had posts on small towns and beaches and the such, so I feel a Midwestern city will be a bit of a change!
Okay, starting with my tiny village. It's about 900 people. It has a post office, a couple of restaurants, a gas station, a small library, a tea room, a shut down coffee place (SAD), one high school, two middle schools, and four elementary schools. Why we have four elementary schools for 900 people will be explained later (because right now that sounds a bit ridiculous, doesn't it?). Everything is pretty much within walking distance of each other, and the village is no larger than a total of 16 blocks, or 0.4 square miles.
The majority of the village is just houses and the people that live in them. Surrounding the village, as most villages and towns and cities, in Illinois, and other states of the Midwest, is corn. Lots and lots of corn. Did you say corn? It's all over. Everywhere. You can't escape it. Not that it hurts or anything. Though there's also soybeans occasionally, too. And cows. In fact, right next to one of the middle schools and the high school, there is a cow pasture. It smells like cow manure and you can often hear the low rumbling of cow 'moos' before and after school.
However, back to the reason as to why there are so many schools in my town. Which would be Peoria, that city I mentioned before. The school district in my tiny village actually extends into the city of Peoria, and therefore, it takes in more school students than the actual population of the town. Last year, my high school had almost 1200 kids in it. And the schools are expanding at a very fast rate because of the city and the jobs it has. Peoria is home to Caterpillar, Inc. headquarters (which, if you didn't know, is that company that makes all the construction stuff. That sats 'CAT' or 'Caterpillar' on it. I know you've seen it), which brings in a lot of new people and students every year.
And that's pretty much it about the tiny village. Moving onto the city. The city has around 115,000 people living in it (over 300,000 in the total area). There are three movie theaters, one of which has IMAX, and countless restaurants. There are chains, private owned restaurants--almost anything you can think of. There are two major malls (one of which is quite new and one of the furthest points from the main part of the city, and about ten miles from my tiny village). One is an outdoor mall that is still expanding and being built onto, and the other is an indoor mall. There are several large roads that go all the out of the city and all the way in, apart from the interstate.
The main part of the city is like most other cities. It's comprised of alternating one-way streets and has tall buildings. Most of the tall buildings are corporation centers and hospitals (there are two major ones in the downtown area). As Peoria is, as I said earlier, the largest city in the Illinois River Valley, it is right on the Illinois River. There are several bridges that cross the river, and more of the city is on the other side, and then branching into other towns and cities within the metropolis area. The river is quite large, and therefore the city plays into that. There are several riverboat casinos and many restaurants in the downtown area are centered around the riverfront. On the 4th of July, fireworks are set off on the riverfront.
Most people that live near the city or in it complain that there isn't much to do, which may be because they're used to it, or are a three hour drive from both Chicago and St. Louis. To someone who has just moved to the city, though, there is a lot to do (hello two malls and countless restaurants).
As for the weather. Well, Midwestern weather, in my experience, is about the most untrustworthy, fickle weather you will ever run into. It can never make up its mind. It will literally be 72 (Farenheit. All my degrees will be in Farenheit) one day, and snowing the next (I'm not making this up. It really happened). Most of the winters bring mild amounts of snow (unless you live in Michigan, like I used to... that's a lot more snow than Illinois). However, in Illinois, the weather was a bit colder and drier because of a lack of lake water and a flatter, prairie-like terrain. In the winter, the weather can drop down to about -20, the average is usually around 10, however. Spring usually comes around mid to late April, and it can be very hot by the middle of June. On average, temperatures will be in the upper eighties during the summer. As Illinois is near tornado alley, and has that praire terrain, tornado watches and severe storms are common.
Once again, though, the weather is subject to change in the blink of an eye because it's the Midwest.
On to people and dialect! People in the Midwest are usually pretty friendly. They tend to make friends with their neighbors and help people out. Though there are always those who aren't. And teenagers have cliques, as expected. The further south in the Midwest you go, the more conservative it tends to be. Unless you're near a larger city, it tends to be more liberal (such as Chicago).
As for the dialect, it is said by linguists that the Midwestern accent is the clearest form of spoken English. It's the accent used by national TV journalists and the like. Though, if you start to head to the more southern parts of the Midwest, the accent has a southern, hick-ish sling to it. S sounds sound more like a Z (instead of greasy, it's 'greazy') and the I vowel sound tends to sound more like an E (See--KT's endless teasing of her father's southern Illinois accent).
Well, that's pretty much the gist of it. A tiny village next to a medium city in Illinois = lots of restaurants and stuff to do if you don't mind a ten minute drive, and lots and lots of corn.
Toodles.
Friday, June 8, 2012
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Thursday Tips her Hat to Texas… her Cowboy Hat
To continue this week of where we are from, I came to give y’all a taste of the south. More specifically, I’m gonna talk about Texas.
Weather: HOT! I remember times in the summer where it was too hot to go into a swimming pool since the water was like taking a bath. Since it’s so hot, almost all the indoor places (grocery stores, malls, movies, etc) blast their air conditioning. I’ve been told I exaggerate how hot Texas really is, but I think if it gets over 100 degrees, it’s too hot. The winters are really nice since it’s not too cold, but we still get that little bite of cold that makes it feel like winter (or in most normal places like fall). I can manage wearing a light jacket through the winter. We can do construction all year round (not just in the summer) since it RARELY freezes down here. It doesn’t rain too much here (last year we had a burn ban since it was too dry, and we were susceptible to forest fires :/). It has snowed a little these past few years, but I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been let out of school for bad weather. When it does snow, you'll see people trying to make snow people with our few inches of snow (since snow is so rare, people like to get the full experience while it's still here). The snow people are really impressive though.
Food: I don’t know what it is about the south, but for some reason people like to eat hot food when it’s hot outside O.o. Yeah, I don’t get it either. I mean Mexican food can be super spicy, and everyone puts a ton of spice on BBQ here. Personally, I’d rather chew ice than have to worry about my lips burning. You know your food is hot when you get a case of the sniffes which I have gotten from some very hot Cajun. I am guilty of putting Cajun seasoning on everything though (BBQ, pasta, stews, etc). Spices do preserve food though, so that’s a plus. Tex-Mex is big here. It’s Texas Mexican food. It’s basically American Mexican food. Texas is known for Bluebell ice cream (we have Ben and Jerry’s and those kinda places, but Bluebell is from Texas). People drink a lot of beer here. I don’t think that is just a southern thing though…
Sports: Sports are really big. College sports tend to get the most buzz. Football (which is an all weekend event) more so than others though any reason to tailgate and drink beer seems to be a winner. Hunting is also really big down here. Hunting tends to be a family outing. I’ve seen restaurants (BBQ restaurants mostly) and houses with stuffed animal heads on the wall or animal hide as a rug (these houses are normally in the country though). Hunting isn’t just a guy thing. I know plenty of girls who know their way around a gun better than most guys. I don’t hunt since I’d probably end up with a dislocated shoulder from the blow back or accidentally shoot my foot.
Dialect: This is a weird one for me since I don’t really think I talk different, but I have heard I have a thick accent… I say y’all lot. I say it more than others though, but I have no idea how northerners manage NOT to say y’all. We don’t really say howdy unless you’re an Aggie (meaning you went/ have family who went to Texas A&M). Aggies like to say howdy, gig’em, whoop (for good things) and ssssss (a snake hiss for bad things). I think they are the only university/ college who uses the texasy words. A lot of the people with thick accents tend to take their time when they talk (like they savor their words).
Life: It really depends on where you live. Big cities are really diverse and tend to be pretty liberal. Austin’s slogan is “keep Austin weird” (and they’re proud of it :D!). There is a large Hispanic (since we live so close to the boarder), African, and Asian/ Indian (not as much as the other two) population in the big cities. In the smaller towns, there is still diversity, but not as much as in the big cities. Also, small towns tend to be more conservative. Small towns tend to have more ranches and dirt roads. There are a ton of pretty wildflowers on the side of dirt roads during the spring (blue bonnets, red Indian paintbrushes, etc).
Hot Spots: Tubing is relaxing down here. It’s like a lazy river where people just drink and talk. We have beaches by the gulf. I don’t suggest Galveston beaches though because it’s always super crowded and doesn’t really seem fun. The roads over look the beach like a three feet high concrete cliff. The roads, that over look the beaches, have the beach on one side and beach themed tourist trap restaurants and stores on the other side. The smaller towns on the gulf are my personal favorite since it’s homey and pretty calm (holiday weekends do get kinda crowded though). The waters tend to be really calm, so we don’t get much waves (surfing isn’t likely). Hurricane season is tricky though. Also the water isn’t blue. It’s kinda a grey ish blue. In San Antonio, we have the River Walk. The water is not blue. The River Walk is very photoshopped on its website. It’s a green ish black. There are always ducks on the river though. San Antonio also has Six Flags (so does Dallas). Outside of San Antonio and Austin, you’ll see the hill country where you can do the stereotypical Texas things like horseback riding. We also have the galleria in Dallas and Houston, but most people don’t go there often. It’s way too big. You walk around forever in the Houston Galleria, and there are barely any convenient drink places to grab a refreshing water bottle. The Houston galleria has 375 stores/restaurants and has 2.4 million square feet of retail space (according to their website), so you’re probably going to want a refreshment after walking all that which you can't find. It’s really pretty in the winter when they put up a Christmas tree in the middle of the ice skating rink (on the bottom floor).
Misc: Towns without railroads tend to be ghost towns (this might be the same for all over, but especially in Texas when railroads were important for selling cattle to the north). The sky is huge here (Texas is very flat, so the sky fills up three-fourths of our windshield.) There are a lot of small towns, tourist traps that defiantly utilize our stereotypes. Beware. We get a LOT of birds. Birds suck. They just poop on your windshields and stalk grocery stores and fast food restaurants. Don’t park under a tree during the winter (the birds migrate down here to stay warm). We also don’t have basements because the ground is too dry.
Incorrect Stereotypes: Texas is not all desert. Maybe if you go by El Paso (I’ve never been that way, so I’m not sure). We also don’t wear cowboy boots with spurs or cowboy hats. Well the majority of us don’t. I do have one cowboy hat (hence the title), but it’s pink and five times too small since I got it when I was 7. We do NOT ride horses to school. My cousin thought we were all cowboys in Texas who ride our horses to school. No. We have cars. Pickup trucks and jeeps are popular, but we have BMWs here too. I do know a handful of people who actually own horses, but they don’t ride them to school. Imagine trying to tie up a horse to the bike rack. It wouldn’t be pretty. We are not all rednecks/ uneducated hicks. We are not all super religious Christians. We have a lot of all different types of religions here. Christian is probably the largest, but we aren’t all gonna slap you with the bible if you don’t do the right thing.
Correct Stereotypes: Yes, everything is bigger in Texas :D
Where are y'all from? Do you ever have trouble making setting feel real and not stereotypical?
Weather: HOT! I remember times in the summer where it was too hot to go into a swimming pool since the water was like taking a bath. Since it’s so hot, almost all the indoor places (grocery stores, malls, movies, etc) blast their air conditioning. I’ve been told I exaggerate how hot Texas really is, but I think if it gets over 100 degrees, it’s too hot. The winters are really nice since it’s not too cold, but we still get that little bite of cold that makes it feel like winter (or in most normal places like fall). I can manage wearing a light jacket through the winter. We can do construction all year round (not just in the summer) since it RARELY freezes down here. It doesn’t rain too much here (last year we had a burn ban since it was too dry, and we were susceptible to forest fires :/). It has snowed a little these past few years, but I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been let out of school for bad weather. When it does snow, you'll see people trying to make snow people with our few inches of snow (since snow is so rare, people like to get the full experience while it's still here). The snow people are really impressive though.
Food: I don’t know what it is about the south, but for some reason people like to eat hot food when it’s hot outside O.o. Yeah, I don’t get it either. I mean Mexican food can be super spicy, and everyone puts a ton of spice on BBQ here. Personally, I’d rather chew ice than have to worry about my lips burning. You know your food is hot when you get a case of the sniffes which I have gotten from some very hot Cajun. I am guilty of putting Cajun seasoning on everything though (BBQ, pasta, stews, etc). Spices do preserve food though, so that’s a plus. Tex-Mex is big here. It’s Texas Mexican food. It’s basically American Mexican food. Texas is known for Bluebell ice cream (we have Ben and Jerry’s and those kinda places, but Bluebell is from Texas). People drink a lot of beer here. I don’t think that is just a southern thing though…
Sports: Sports are really big. College sports tend to get the most buzz. Football (which is an all weekend event) more so than others though any reason to tailgate and drink beer seems to be a winner. Hunting is also really big down here. Hunting tends to be a family outing. I’ve seen restaurants (BBQ restaurants mostly) and houses with stuffed animal heads on the wall or animal hide as a rug (these houses are normally in the country though). Hunting isn’t just a guy thing. I know plenty of girls who know their way around a gun better than most guys. I don’t hunt since I’d probably end up with a dislocated shoulder from the blow back or accidentally shoot my foot.
Dialect: This is a weird one for me since I don’t really think I talk different, but I have heard I have a thick accent… I say y’all lot. I say it more than others though, but I have no idea how northerners manage NOT to say y’all. We don’t really say howdy unless you’re an Aggie (meaning you went/ have family who went to Texas A&M). Aggies like to say howdy, gig’em, whoop (for good things) and ssssss (a snake hiss for bad things). I think they are the only university/ college who uses the texasy words. A lot of the people with thick accents tend to take their time when they talk (like they savor their words).
Life: It really depends on where you live. Big cities are really diverse and tend to be pretty liberal. Austin’s slogan is “keep Austin weird” (and they’re proud of it :D!). There is a large Hispanic (since we live so close to the boarder), African, and Asian/ Indian (not as much as the other two) population in the big cities. In the smaller towns, there is still diversity, but not as much as in the big cities. Also, small towns tend to be more conservative. Small towns tend to have more ranches and dirt roads. There are a ton of pretty wildflowers on the side of dirt roads during the spring (blue bonnets, red Indian paintbrushes, etc).
Hot Spots: Tubing is relaxing down here. It’s like a lazy river where people just drink and talk. We have beaches by the gulf. I don’t suggest Galveston beaches though because it’s always super crowded and doesn’t really seem fun. The roads over look the beach like a three feet high concrete cliff. The roads, that over look the beaches, have the beach on one side and beach themed tourist trap restaurants and stores on the other side. The smaller towns on the gulf are my personal favorite since it’s homey and pretty calm (holiday weekends do get kinda crowded though). The waters tend to be really calm, so we don’t get much waves (surfing isn’t likely). Hurricane season is tricky though. Also the water isn’t blue. It’s kinda a grey ish blue. In San Antonio, we have the River Walk. The water is not blue. The River Walk is very photoshopped on its website. It’s a green ish black. There are always ducks on the river though. San Antonio also has Six Flags (so does Dallas). Outside of San Antonio and Austin, you’ll see the hill country where you can do the stereotypical Texas things like horseback riding. We also have the galleria in Dallas and Houston, but most people don’t go there often. It’s way too big. You walk around forever in the Houston Galleria, and there are barely any convenient drink places to grab a refreshing water bottle. The Houston galleria has 375 stores/restaurants and has 2.4 million square feet of retail space (according to their website), so you’re probably going to want a refreshment after walking all that which you can't find. It’s really pretty in the winter when they put up a Christmas tree in the middle of the ice skating rink (on the bottom floor).
Misc: Towns without railroads tend to be ghost towns (this might be the same for all over, but especially in Texas when railroads were important for selling cattle to the north). The sky is huge here (Texas is very flat, so the sky fills up three-fourths of our windshield.) There are a lot of small towns, tourist traps that defiantly utilize our stereotypes. Beware. We get a LOT of birds. Birds suck. They just poop on your windshields and stalk grocery stores and fast food restaurants. Don’t park under a tree during the winter (the birds migrate down here to stay warm). We also don’t have basements because the ground is too dry.
Incorrect Stereotypes: Texas is not all desert. Maybe if you go by El Paso (I’ve never been that way, so I’m not sure). We also don’t wear cowboy boots with spurs or cowboy hats. Well the majority of us don’t. I do have one cowboy hat (hence the title), but it’s pink and five times too small since I got it when I was 7. We do NOT ride horses to school. My cousin thought we were all cowboys in Texas who ride our horses to school. No. We have cars. Pickup trucks and jeeps are popular, but we have BMWs here too. I do know a handful of people who actually own horses, but they don’t ride them to school. Imagine trying to tie up a horse to the bike rack. It wouldn’t be pretty. We are not all rednecks/ uneducated hicks. We are not all super religious Christians. We have a lot of all different types of religions here. Christian is probably the largest, but we aren’t all gonna slap you with the bible if you don’t do the right thing.
Correct Stereotypes: Yes, everything is bigger in Texas :D
Where are y'all from? Do you ever have trouble making setting feel real and not stereotypical?
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Wednesday Talks Toes In The Sand
Hello, beautiful people. As a follow up to Kieryn's post, I'm also doing a post on setting, but I will be using the little beach town I go on vacation to every summer.
Think about it. What makes a place real? What are the things that identify where you are? They aren't singular characteristics. I know I'm nearing the beach when we are sitting bumper to bumper on the Bay Bridge and I can see the little white specks of sailboats bobbing against the slate of the Chesapeake Bay. As we get closer to the shore, I spot seagulls circling overhead and soon after that, sandy groups of people toting surf boards, folding chairs, frisbees, coolers and every beach related thing you could possibly think of.
Smaller beach towns do have a number of year-round residents, but many of the people you see there are vacationing. This means that there will probably a main street lined with a good number of shops. Junk shops, clothing stores, family restaurants, a penny arcade--these are all common in towns like the one I spend a week in every summer. In the evening, the vacationers come out to pay a visit to one of many ice cream shops, or lounge in the air-conditioned arcade playing wack-a-gator and lucky ducks. The knick-knack shops (home to painted seashells, wind chimes, wooden signs, key chains, fake vomit, flip-flops, watches, and stuffed dogs that move and bark) are usually full to bursting with ice cream splattered children and their bedraggled parents.
Most beach towns, in addition to this sort of main centre, also have a boardwalk of some sort. In the town I visit, the boardwalk is pretty small, but has many more stores (mostly selling beach related items) and food stands. In some places, there might be a band shell where musicians perform in the evening. Boardwalks sometimes even have little hoses so that people can rinse off sand as they come up from the beach. Also, most beaches have a closing time, say, 9:00 at night or so. Don't ask me how I know that.
The rest of the town is usually made up of adorable, pastel beach houses. Some grand and showy, others cozy and cottage like. Most will have screened porches, decks, or balconies, and often, the houses are raise up off the ground and cars are parked underneath. The air in the entire town feels sort of wet, but light at the same time, and sometimes, when it's windy, you can smell salt. Sand is everywhere. The bottoms of shoes. The roads. The houses. Behind ears. Between teeth. It invades the entire town.
The beach itself is probably something you can easily describe, so my suggestion would be to think about what the beach is like at different times of the day. Early in the morning-- foggy, gray, the sand cut by the tracks of the trucks that smooth it over each night. Or at noon--when the sand burns the soles of your feet, the sun hits the water in that way that makes it look like stained glass, and the beach is crammed with umbrellas and towels and tents and people smeared with sunscreen. Or in the evening--when it's windier, the sky looks purple, and the beach is empty of people.
If you can't tell, I really want to be at the beach. But I'm not, so my setting advice is to focus on using a variety of sensory detail and to research the place you have chosen to set your story (know how the town would be designed, who would live there, what kind of housing would be available etc.).
Happy writing.
Caroline
contact me/more writing
Think about it. What makes a place real? What are the things that identify where you are? They aren't singular characteristics. I know I'm nearing the beach when we are sitting bumper to bumper on the Bay Bridge and I can see the little white specks of sailboats bobbing against the slate of the Chesapeake Bay. As we get closer to the shore, I spot seagulls circling overhead and soon after that, sandy groups of people toting surf boards, folding chairs, frisbees, coolers and every beach related thing you could possibly think of.
Smaller beach towns do have a number of year-round residents, but many of the people you see there are vacationing. This means that there will probably a main street lined with a good number of shops. Junk shops, clothing stores, family restaurants, a penny arcade--these are all common in towns like the one I spend a week in every summer. In the evening, the vacationers come out to pay a visit to one of many ice cream shops, or lounge in the air-conditioned arcade playing wack-a-gator and lucky ducks. The knick-knack shops (home to painted seashells, wind chimes, wooden signs, key chains, fake vomit, flip-flops, watches, and stuffed dogs that move and bark) are usually full to bursting with ice cream splattered children and their bedraggled parents.
Most beach towns, in addition to this sort of main centre, also have a boardwalk of some sort. In the town I visit, the boardwalk is pretty small, but has many more stores (mostly selling beach related items) and food stands. In some places, there might be a band shell where musicians perform in the evening. Boardwalks sometimes even have little hoses so that people can rinse off sand as they come up from the beach. Also, most beaches have a closing time, say, 9:00 at night or so. Don't ask me how I know that.
The rest of the town is usually made up of adorable, pastel beach houses. Some grand and showy, others cozy and cottage like. Most will have screened porches, decks, or balconies, and often, the houses are raise up off the ground and cars are parked underneath. The air in the entire town feels sort of wet, but light at the same time, and sometimes, when it's windy, you can smell salt. Sand is everywhere. The bottoms of shoes. The roads. The houses. Behind ears. Between teeth. It invades the entire town.
The beach itself is probably something you can easily describe, so my suggestion would be to think about what the beach is like at different times of the day. Early in the morning-- foggy, gray, the sand cut by the tracks of the trucks that smooth it over each night. Or at noon--when the sand burns the soles of your feet, the sun hits the water in that way that makes it look like stained glass, and the beach is crammed with umbrellas and towels and tents and people smeared with sunscreen. Or in the evening--when it's windier, the sky looks purple, and the beach is empty of people.
If you can't tell, I really want to be at the beach. But I'm not, so my setting advice is to focus on using a variety of sensory detail and to research the place you have chosen to set your story (know how the town would be designed, who would live there, what kind of housing would be available etc.).
Happy writing.
Caroline
contact me/more writing
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Tuesday's Tips on a Medium-ish Town
...More specifically, Tuesday's Tips Specifically Regarding Places That Are Medium-ish Towns Not Particularly Close To Any Real Cities And Have A College Smack-Dab In The Middle.
To provide a bit of context for the topic--we at YA Lit Six decided to theme our next round of posts, and the theme is setting. We're going to provide you with information about different types of settings we have personal experience with, so if you decide to set your next story at, say, the beach, or down south, or in a medium-ish town not particularly close to any real cities and has a college smack-dab in the middle, you can throw in some authentic-sounding details.
So! A medium-ish town. A medium-ish town is characterized by having way more clothing stores, restaurants, and banks than a "small" town (namely, multiples of each one) but way less than a city or even a town with a decent-sized (read: more than one story) mall, and also lacks skyscrapers. Large billboards are absent, and grocery store parking lots are large but never packed with cars.
Most of the multiple restaurants/shops/banks are located in the downtown area. This downtown area is navigable via a grid of streets, and people who frequent these streets (mostly students of the aforementioned college) could be major contenders in 2016 if jaywalking ever makes it as an Olympic sport. Community members complain constantly about driving downtown, but in reality the situation is a cakewalk compared to, say, the streets of NYC.
For entertainment throw in two movie theaters, two pools, a laser tag arena, and multiple public parks. There is one nightclub in the entire town and it's really not that popular. Seeing as this supply of entertainment might get cycled through multiple times and become "old," younger residents of the town usually spend time at one another's houses, the two main shopping areas, or, when the weather's nice, wandering downtown mixing up where they eat dinner/lunch/ice cream. (Throw in many ice cream places.)
As a whole the town is fairly affluent, so add in at least two golf courses. Most residents live in suburban-style neighborhoods with lawns large enough for a swing set in the back. There are a few apartment complexes and a few mansions, but the mean is the mode in this case.
Line the town with farmland and forests--though the town itself does not seem very rural, residents are less than an hour's drive from many--many--hiking trails, fishing spots, and hunting grounds. Some people on the edges of town can simply walk through their backyard and up one of the low mountains surrounding the town. (The northeast isn't particularly flat, but these are no Rockies.)
The town itself is fairly clean. Roads are well-maintained, and graffiti is rarely seen, except a few glimpses in some downtown alleyways. Because it is a college town, the public library is pretty large and the college libraries are well-stocked with scholarly material.
In Autumn the leaves turn all sorts of colors, making the mountains look purple and coating the sidewalks. Winter covers everything in a nice layer of white, making the town seem smaller, somehow, and really cozy--until the snow turns to slush, and then it's just gross. Summertime gets hot, very hot, and lots of sunbathers flock to parks and lawns downtown to partake in the yearly ritual of seeking out sunburn and/or boys. Mosquitoes fly rampant. Spring brings many flowers, bees, and thunderstorms.
(Sorry this is in no particular order.)
HAPPY TUESDAY.
Kieryn
www.kierynnicolas.com
To provide a bit of context for the topic--we at YA Lit Six decided to theme our next round of posts, and the theme is setting. We're going to provide you with information about different types of settings we have personal experience with, so if you decide to set your next story at, say, the beach, or down south, or in a medium-ish town not particularly close to any real cities and has a college smack-dab in the middle, you can throw in some authentic-sounding details.
So! A medium-ish town. A medium-ish town is characterized by having way more clothing stores, restaurants, and banks than a "small" town (namely, multiples of each one) but way less than a city or even a town with a decent-sized (read: more than one story) mall, and also lacks skyscrapers. Large billboards are absent, and grocery store parking lots are large but never packed with cars.
Most of the multiple restaurants/shops/banks are located in the downtown area. This downtown area is navigable via a grid of streets, and people who frequent these streets (mostly students of the aforementioned college) could be major contenders in 2016 if jaywalking ever makes it as an Olympic sport. Community members complain constantly about driving downtown, but in reality the situation is a cakewalk compared to, say, the streets of NYC.
For entertainment throw in two movie theaters, two pools, a laser tag arena, and multiple public parks. There is one nightclub in the entire town and it's really not that popular. Seeing as this supply of entertainment might get cycled through multiple times and become "old," younger residents of the town usually spend time at one another's houses, the two main shopping areas, or, when the weather's nice, wandering downtown mixing up where they eat dinner/lunch/ice cream. (Throw in many ice cream places.)
As a whole the town is fairly affluent, so add in at least two golf courses. Most residents live in suburban-style neighborhoods with lawns large enough for a swing set in the back. There are a few apartment complexes and a few mansions, but the mean is the mode in this case.
Line the town with farmland and forests--though the town itself does not seem very rural, residents are less than an hour's drive from many--many--hiking trails, fishing spots, and hunting grounds. Some people on the edges of town can simply walk through their backyard and up one of the low mountains surrounding the town. (The northeast isn't particularly flat, but these are no Rockies.)
The town itself is fairly clean. Roads are well-maintained, and graffiti is rarely seen, except a few glimpses in some downtown alleyways. Because it is a college town, the public library is pretty large and the college libraries are well-stocked with scholarly material.
In Autumn the leaves turn all sorts of colors, making the mountains look purple and coating the sidewalks. Winter covers everything in a nice layer of white, making the town seem smaller, somehow, and really cozy--until the snow turns to slush, and then it's just gross. Summertime gets hot, very hot, and lots of sunbathers flock to parks and lawns downtown to partake in the yearly ritual of seeking out sunburn and/or boys. Mosquitoes fly rampant. Spring brings many flowers, bees, and thunderstorms.
(Sorry this is in no particular order.)
HAPPY TUESDAY.
Kieryn
www.kierynnicolas.com
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Saturday on the Books She Doesn't Write
Or: There Are A Lot of Voices in My Heads
You're probably all sick of hearing about my revisions and stuff by now so I thought I'd talk about something else.
(Just to recap for those of you who are new around here) I have three books that are written. One has been polished and revised a lot more than the others because it's older. One of the other two is my next/current revising project and one I'm waiting on feedback for because holy heck I don't know what to do with it.
I have two things I'm playing with that might be my next drafting project when I get to that stage. KT posted about new books yesterday and since she's actually writing hers, her post is a lot more exciting them mine where I vaguely mumble about snakebites and circuses and cute boys. (There are always cute boys in my books. And kissing. Even my short stories have kissing. Which says a lot about me considering one of them is about zombies.)
Also I'm kind of superstitious about talking about books that haven't been written. My crit partners only know a little bit about them, really, and I've only let them read one thing mostly because I was sorta shocked I had written it. Books that aren't written yet can change too much too quickly and I'm always afraid talking about them will jinx them. Eventually, though, I'm pretty sure those will get written.
However there are books I don't write. I don't write sequels, to start with, because that road (for me) leads to heartache and pain and so we just don't go there because that is a bad place to go. Bad bad bad bad place. (Trust me. Bad. Heartache. Pain. Five million binders hidden in strange and unusual places that you only remember about when you need a new binder for a WIP and don't want to buy one and then you spend a full day reading the awful awful things you wrote years ago.) (Not that I did that or anything.)
And there are others. Right now... it's my superhero book. Mostly because it's not ready to be written. I think when, eventually, I write it, I will love it lots and it'll be... well, I'm not gonna say awesome because that's just not happening. I think it'll be a challenge. I think I would adore the characters and the world and just about everything in it.
I know that it isn't ready to be written. I adore the pieces of it I've written (hey, this is how I work, run with it) but I know that it isn't ready to be plotted and drafted and, well, written yet. (I also feel like it wouldn't be a very good standalone and, well, see above about the heartache and pain of sequels.) It's a one-day book. For now, that's okay.
So what books do you guys NOT write? What are your reasons?
Peace and cookies,
Laina
You're probably all sick of hearing about my revisions and stuff by now so I thought I'd talk about something else.
(Just to recap for those of you who are new around here) I have three books that are written. One has been polished and revised a lot more than the others because it's older. One of the other two is my next/current revising project and one I'm waiting on feedback for because holy heck I don't know what to do with it.
I have two things I'm playing with that might be my next drafting project when I get to that stage. KT posted about new books yesterday and since she's actually writing hers, her post is a lot more exciting them mine where I vaguely mumble about snakebites and circuses and cute boys. (There are always cute boys in my books. And kissing. Even my short stories have kissing. Which says a lot about me considering one of them is about zombies.)
Also I'm kind of superstitious about talking about books that haven't been written. My crit partners only know a little bit about them, really, and I've only let them read one thing mostly because I was sorta shocked I had written it. Books that aren't written yet can change too much too quickly and I'm always afraid talking about them will jinx them. Eventually, though, I'm pretty sure those will get written.
However there are books I don't write. I don't write sequels, to start with, because that road (for me) leads to heartache and pain and so we just don't go there because that is a bad place to go. Bad bad bad bad place. (Trust me. Bad. Heartache. Pain. Five million binders hidden in strange and unusual places that you only remember about when you need a new binder for a WIP and don't want to buy one and then you spend a full day reading the awful awful things you wrote years ago.) (Not that I did that or anything.)
And there are others. Right now... it's my superhero book. Mostly because it's not ready to be written. I think when, eventually, I write it, I will love it lots and it'll be... well, I'm not gonna say awesome because that's just not happening. I think it'll be a challenge. I think I would adore the characters and the world and just about everything in it.
I know that it isn't ready to be written. I adore the pieces of it I've written (hey, this is how I work, run with it) but I know that it isn't ready to be plotted and drafted and, well, written yet. (I also feel like it wouldn't be a very good standalone and, well, see above about the heartache and pain of sequels.) It's a one-day book. For now, that's okay.
So what books do you guys NOT write? What are your reasons?
Peace and cookies,
Laina
Friday, June 1, 2012
Friday Announces SOMETHING
I find it slightly amusing that almost all of us didn't post last week! Oops.
And I'm late to the game, once again. At least it is still Friday this time!
Well, I was going to announce this last Friday, but I wasn't home. So! Here it is!
I AM OFFICIALLY WRITING A NEW BOOK! I'm almost 13k in right now. *dances* If you follow my twitter, you've probably known that for a while now.
So. New book. Kind of scary. It's scary for several reasons. It's a sci fi. I have never written a sci fi. It's also in present tense. I sometimes write short stories in present tense, but never an entire book. I keep slipping into past, or having trouble making the present tense sound right. But that's what revising is for, right?
A little about the book, then? As I said, it's a sci fi--in this case, a sci fi as in it takes in the future on a spaceship. My protagonist is a seventeen year old girl named Alexandra (Alex for short) who is a boxer and an aspiring pilot. I'm awful at describing my books, so I'm going to leave it at that!
Oh, it's also untitled. Which bothers me. Lots.
In other news, I have a beautiful idea for the book I want to write after this one. And it's based on this song -
Pretty, right?
And I'm late to the game, once again. At least it is still Friday this time!
Well, I was going to announce this last Friday, but I wasn't home. So! Here it is!
I AM OFFICIALLY WRITING A NEW BOOK! I'm almost 13k in right now. *dances* If you follow my twitter, you've probably known that for a while now.
So. New book. Kind of scary. It's scary for several reasons. It's a sci fi. I have never written a sci fi. It's also in present tense. I sometimes write short stories in present tense, but never an entire book. I keep slipping into past, or having trouble making the present tense sound right. But that's what revising is for, right?
A little about the book, then? As I said, it's a sci fi--in this case, a sci fi as in it takes in the future on a spaceship. My protagonist is a seventeen year old girl named Alexandra (Alex for short) who is a boxer and an aspiring pilot. I'm awful at describing my books, so I'm going to leave it at that!
Oh, it's also untitled. Which bothers me. Lots.
In other news, I have a beautiful idea for the book I want to write after this one. And it's based on this song -
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